Ng: Amazing Kindle
FOR the past few days, I have been toying with a new gadget, the Amazon Kindle. In the remote chance you haven't heard about it, the Kindle is Amazon.com's e-book reader. It is very thin---it is slightly larger than a standard DVD case but half its thickness. It weighs only a few grams and can store over a thousand books.
It was a hit when it was introduced over a year ago but during that time, it wasn't available outside the United States. It was only a few weeks ago that Amazon decided to sell the Kindle in selected countries worldwide, including the Philippines.
In my opinion, every bibliophile should get one.
I am no stranger to e-books, having worked with a series of Palm and Windows mobile gadgets as well as notebooks to read the latest news and books. But the Kindle is different. It was designed from the ground up just for reading books and magazines and it shows.
There are various very noteworthy things about the device:
When you buy a Kindle, it has a special SIM. That SIM I think is what Amazon calls WhisperNet and I believe is a subscription to the Sprint network. It means that the Kindle can surf the Net using cell phone signals, but Amazon pays for it all.
The user has the Kindle linked to his account and while he can surf, he is limited to basically a few sites like Wikipedia and Amazon store. So anywhere in the US, and anywhere now in the world where the company has roaming arrangements, you can go to the Amazon e-book store and check out the books for free.
And if you like the book and purchase it, the only thing you worry about is the purchase price, because in minutes, the book is sent to you without you having to pay web surfing cost.
If you, for instance, commit to pay for getting a blog or a magazine or newspaper, then on a regular or daily basis, the news/ magazine is sent to you at no additional cost.
Apparently Amazon is betting on the system the way Apple did with its Apple Store - the Apple Store thrived even if people pay just about a dollar per song because they make it so easy and convenient. In Amazon, it's the same way.
You can get classic books whose copyrights have lapsed for a dollar or two (and many of them are available in the internet for free) but the convenience and accessibility may be worth paying for.
There is something there - the price of the book stays the same no matter where you are in the world - which is liberating.
Kindle uses a kind of electronic ink. This ink takes about a second to update but there is something noteworthy about the technology - once the ink dries up it does not require backlight or power to have it stick to the screen. So that means that without backlight or power to support the screen, the small battery can last days of reading.This makes it very convenient.
After all, a device is never truly portable unless you can do some meaningful reading or work without having to look for a power source all the
time.
The Kindle has a great design and my kids are reading more already because of the gadget. If you love reading, this is something that you should try. Check it out at www.amazon.com. Read the original article here http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/ng-amazing-kindle
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